The Magnificent Seven Review: 5 Ups And 5 Downs

3. The Basic Action Construction Is Thrilling (If A Tad Incomprehensible)

If there’s one thing you can guarantee Fuqua will to do well in whatever he's directing it’s gunfights, so it’s somewhat surprising it’s taken him this long to dip his toe in the genre where gunfights are the entire point. As expected the approach to the action here, with heightened period realism making way for kinetic, yet not OTT fights, is on-point, with the raindrops of pistols going off all around a sound to behold.

A mid-point standoff is the highlight, chock full of convention-mocking beats in the build up that makes way for a relentless, character driven takedown of crooked lawgivers. Although even later on when the stakes are bigger there's still an intense grounding.

There are issues that make this more of a love-hate relationship, especially in the final showdown, but I’ll get to that in the Downs.